CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Devin. I
think that you need to look into the real possibility that Richard Henning or one
of his business partners from the Henning Cooper Company had Antonio Ortiz
murdered.”
“Well hello to you too, Victoria. Have you ever
heard of knocking before you enter?” Devin asked, the sarcasm dripping from his
voice.
Victoria was back in
Dallas, Texas for the time being. It was in the early afternoon and she had
just arrived at the Dallas Police Department. She was bone-tired from all of
the traveling to and from California that she had been doing for the past few
weeks. Fortunately, Joshua was still in California and not yet on another
mission. She could not wait to finish her investigations and news articles so
that she could hurry back to him. She had a crucial, in-person meeting with
her editor right after her meeting with Detective Sage.
Devin was looking
bone-tired himself. He was wearing a rumpled white dress shirt, black
trousers, and a glare. His gray eyes were bloodshot and his dark brown hair
was tousled. Victoria felt sympathy pangs for him, he looked beyond
exhausted.
Victoria knew that
his wife, Carrie, had recently given birth to their second child—so between
fatherly duties and investigating a myriad of homicides, he was starting to
look more than a little haggard around the edges. There was nothing quite like
juggling a screaming infant and dozens of homicide cases to zap the energy
right out of you.
He had been in the
middle of filling out paperwork when Victoria barged into his office. The
Dallas Police Department had recently made a lot of new hires, courtesy of an
increased budget, and Devin had been “upgraded” to this space. It was unusual
for a detective to have an office that closed with a door. That being said,
Devin’s “office” wasn’t much to look at. It was about the size of a broom
closet. Actually, Victoria had seen larger broom closets. The room didn’t
even have a window.
Devin was seated
behind his medium-sized, double-pedestal steel desk. A large vertical filing
cabinet was crammed in the back corner. The whole room had a 1960s vibe to it,
complete with stale air and nausea inducing fluorescent lighting. The only
features that brought it back into the Twenty-First Century were the desktop
computer and the contemporary photograph frames on the desk, which showed Devin
with his wife and their two children.
“I’m serious, Devin.
I think that someone from the Henning Cooper Company hired someone to get rid
of Antonio Ortiz,” Victoria said, sitting down in the chair in front of Devin’s
desk.
“What the hell are
you talking about?”
Devin’s gray eyes were looking at her
suspiciously. That was to be expected. Victoria didn’t have what police
officers liked to call, hard evidence. But she had no doubt that what Kevin
Frasier had told her two days ago was true.
“Look, I have a very credible anonymous source.
This anonymous source told me that, a few months prior to his death, the
Henning Cooper Company hired Antonio Ortiz to transfer some packages for them
in the dock that they operated in Galveston, Texas.
”
“Why would the Henning Cooper Company hire a
seventeen-year-old kid to move packages for them?”
“I’ve been thinking about that very issue. It
didn’t make sense to me at first either. But I did some digging, and I found
out that Antonio’s uncle, Romero Ortiz, worked for the company as well. The
Henning Cooper Company fired him shortly after Antonio’s death. I think that
Antonio’s uncle may have helped to get him the job so that he could make some
extra cash. I’ve tried to get into contact with his Uncle Romero, but a few
weeks back he left Dallas. His sister-in-law, Nina Ortiz, hasn’t heard from
him. But there’s no indication that Romero knew the details of the transport
job that his nephew took. Antonio was a smart kid, but he wanted to save up
some money for college and to help his mother out with her expenses.”
“Even if this Ortiz
kid was moving packages, why would anyone at the Henning Cooper Company want
him dead?”
“Drugs. We both know that the Henning Cooper
Company has been receiving foreign shipments of heroin in some of their
tankers. I also know that Antonio Ortiz’s job at the Henning Cooper Company was
as a transporter of some of the heroin shipments.” Before Devin could get the
question that was poised on his tongue out, Victoria cut him off. “Yeah, don’t
even ask me. You know that I’m not going to reveal my source.”
“Hold on a second. For the past few months, you
have been trying to convince me that Antonio Ortiz was a good kid who was
murdered through no fault of his own. Now you’re telling me that he was moving
drugs for the Henning Cooper Company.”
“Antonio Ortiz
was
a good kid. One of the
sources that I have been in contact with stated that when Antonio first took
the job, he didn’t know that he was transporting drugs. He only found out a few
weeks into his work for the company. He quit as soon as he figured out what
was going on.”
“Why didn’t he just report what he found to the
police?”
“Yeah. A young, poor, Hispanic kid from West Dallas
going up against a rich and powerful company that just happened to be owned by
a former U.S. Congressman. Would you go to the police?”
“What do you want me to do with this information,
Victoria? If you don’t tell me the name of your source, how the hell am I
supposed to believe anything that you’ve just said?”
“Are you calling me a liar?”
“No. I am not calling you a liar. What I’m saying
is that since your source is anonymous, I can’t question him or her, and I have
no way of examining his or her credibility. From the information that we have been
able to gather about both Richard Henning’s murder and Antonio Ortiz’s murder,
there’s not a scintilla of evidence that would connect Richard Henning to
Antonio Ortiz’s murder.”
“But here’s the thing, there is evidence. There’s a
witness. My source gave me the identity of someone you should interview.
Someone who you haven’t spoken to before, someone who saw Antonio Ortiz being
gunned down—gunned down by two men on a motorcycle. Just like Richard
Henning.”
“Let me get this straight. You’re trying to
convince me that someone orchestrated both Antonio Ortiz’s murder and Richard
Henning’s killing?”
“Yes. Both of these murders were perpetrated by two
men on motorcycles who used large caliber handguns to commit the crimes. This
type of MO is probably the perpetrators’ signature. Therefore, I believe that
the two murders are connected. It does not make any sense that the Haqqai
group, who kidnapped Richard Henning in Pakistan, would have had any motivation
at all to kill Antonio Ortiz. Especially, not in the months before they
kidnapped Richard Henning.”
Victoria could see the wheels turning around in
Devin’s head. “Yeah, but you still haven’t presented me with evidence to
support that the same people who killed Antonio Ortiz killed Richard Henning.
Right now, this is just interesting theory and conjecture. The DA would never
move forward with this on what you’ve given me,” he finally said.
“You need to speak with Sonya Rodriguez,” Victoria
reached down into her purse and pulled out a scrap of paper with a telephone
number on it. “She was an administrative assistant at the Henning Cooper
Company office in downtown Dallas. She also knew one of Antonio Ortiz’s
cousins. She’s apparently how Antonio found out about this transport job to
begin with. She graduated a few years ago from the same high school that
Antonio attended. She believes that she overheard Walker Cooper and Walt
Mickelson planning the murder of Antonio Ortiz. She didn’t put two and two
together until after Antonio was gunned down. She’s been afraid to go to the
police about what she knows.”
Devin was slow to
respond as he reached forward to pick up the sheet of paper that Victoria had
handed him. But when he did, he said the words that Victoria had been waiting
for, “Okay, Victoria, you’ve got my attention. I’ll talk to my superiors about
expanding the investigations to include your theory.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
or the second time, Victoria was standing outside of Nina
Ortiz’s apartment late in the evening. Knocking on the woman’s apartment door,
Victoria waited for several moments before the door cracked open, the security
chain still in place. The older woman peered at her through the cracked
opening.
“Ms. Sanchez?”
“Yes, it’s me Victoria. I’m sorry to be dropping by so late in the
evening, Ms. Ortiz. May I come in? There’s been some very important
developments in the investigation into the death of your son.”
“Sure, of course. One moment,” the older woman replied, closing the
door and then sliding the chain off, before opening the door all the way to
allow Victoria to walk into the apartment.
Victoria sat down on the same chair in which she had sat months before.
“What is this about?” Ms. Ortiz asked, taking up the chair across from
Victoria.
“As you know, I’ve been investigating your son’s murder. In recent
days, I’ve been able to speak to different contacts who have given me
additional information about the moments and weeks leading up to your son’s death.”
“What have you found out, Ms. Sanchez?”
Nina Ortiz’s voice was tight with strain, her eyes still holding onto
the sorrow that Victoria had seen on her first visit.
“I’m releasing two news articles at the end of the week about both your
son’s murder and the assassination of former Congressman Richard Henning.”
“Do you know who murdered my Antonio?”
“I think so. I’ve spoken to one of Antonio’s acquaintances who was
familiar with the company that your son was working for prior to his death.
Apparently, he was working as a transporter for the Henning Cooper Company. The
same company that your brother-in-law, Romero Ortiz, used to work for. There
is no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it. I have credible information
that Antonio was transporting drugs for this shipping company.”
“What? I don’t understand. You mean pharmaceutical drugs for a
hospital?”
“No, I mean illegal heroin that had been shipped into a U.S. port. I
know that this may be difficult for you to comprehend, but—”
“No!” Ms. Ortiz cut her off before she could finish, abruptly standing
up from her seat. “You are just trying to slander him. A poor boy from the
ghetto. My Antonio was a good boy. He would never have been involved with
drugs. Not to use them or to sell them.”
“Ms. Ortiz. I’m very sorry, I know this is very hard for you. I
promise you that it’s not my intention to slander your son. Antonio wasn’t
selling the drugs. He wasn’t aware for quite some time about what he was actually
transporting. When he found out the truth, he tried to quit the job. I think that
his quitting the job was one of the reasons why he was murdered. Trust me, I’m
only trying to uncover the truth about what happened to him and help the police
identify who killed him.”
Ms. Ortiz stared at her for a long moment. Her brown eyes were
shooting fire in Victoria’s direction. The woman was sad, angry, and
distressed. Victoria could only imagine how she now felt, after having heard
news that may threaten to tarnish her son’s character.
“Who did this to my son?”
Nina Ortiz
finally asked. The words were barely above a whisper, Victoria strained her
ears trying to make them out.
“I believe that the individuals who shot your son were hired by someone
from the Henning Cooper Company. Apparently, some of the drug product that
your son was carrying went missing. Your son didn’t take the drugs, but I
believe that someone at the shipping company thought that your son had. Shortly,
after the last transport that your son completed, he tried to quit the job. I
believe that that ignited additional suspicion that your son had stolen
portions of the drugs that were being transported.”
Nina Ortiz stood there in front of Victoria, a shocked expression on
her face, tears brimming in her eyes. “Romero didn’t tell me that he got
Antonio this job. I have not heard from him in weeks. Do you think that he
knows what happened to my Antonio?”
“I can’t be sure, Ms. Ortiz. But from the information that
I have right now, there’s no indication that Romero knew about what was being
transported when he helped get Antonio the job. I believe that he was just
trying to help your son.”
Nina Ortiz nodded her head before saying, “Thank you for
what you’ve done, in looking into this, Ms. Sanchez. But no one will be
arrested.”
“Ms.
Ortiz, I know one of the lead police investigators into your son’s case and he
is a solid guy. He won’t bury this case because of the Henning Cooper
Company’s wealth or the wealth of the individuals behind the organization. If
he can make a case against them for the death of your son, he will.”
“You may believe
that Ms. Sanchez. You may be a Latina, but you live worlds away from here
where my Antonio lived. You come down here in your nice car and slum for a bit,
but you don’t really know. I’m not saying that you don’t care. But you will
never know what it’s like to be poor. To worry about your survival on a
day-to-day basis. To know that your voice doesn’t count.”
“Ms. Ortiz, I know
that you’re upset. That you are hurting. But I don’t mean you any harm. I
started the investigation into your son’s death because the truth needs to be
told about why he died.” Victoria said, softly. It wasn’t really soothing.
She doubted that anything she said at this point could serve to soothe this
broken woman who stood before her. This woman who had had to bury her only
child—something that no parent should ever have to do.
“You may think that
if you tell your little story, ‘justice’ will be served. But it won’t. It
won’t because the people who killed my baby won’t have any consequences,” she said,
slowly sinking back down into the seat, shaking her head. “Everyone should be
held accountable for their actions. But men like them never are. They think
that they can do whatever they want to do. Take whatever they want to take. And
they’re right.”
