Better Late Than Never: Chapter 8
"Are you crazy? Why do you have…that?" Mark demanded, unwilling to say out loud what he had just seen hidden in Marty's backpack, even though they were all alone in the bleachers on the junior varsity football team's practice field.
"I'm trying to get it back where it belongs without getting me or anyone else in trouble," Marty replied.
"Where did you get it?"
Marty's slender shoulders slumped as he looked away from his friend's piercing green-eyed gaze. "I can't tell you."
"This has something to do with Tex and that criminal cousin of yours, doesn't it? Marty? Doesn't it?"
"That doesn't matter. All I need is for you to get this to a police station. I read somewhere that if you find a gun and turn it in to the police, they take it, no questions asked," Marty explained.
"Then why don't you take it?" Mark retorted.
"Because you are Mark Fitzgerald, golden boy of Liberty High. No one will think twice if you say this thing isn't yours, if you say that you found it and just wanted to do the right thing. Please, Mark, you have to help me," Marty pleaded, his blue eyes filled with desperation.
"No way am I going to waltz into a police station carrying that thing. But I think I might know someone who can help," Mark insisted, reaching into the side pocket of his backpack. "Ah, crap, I forgot I don't have my cell phone."
Mark ran his fingers through his collar length dark hair, trying to think of how he was going to get Juliet to call Ranger Gage without telling her why. He didn't want her to be mixed up in Marty's problem anymore than he wanted to be himself, but there was no one he trusted more than Juliet.
"Come on. I'm supposed to meet Juliet at Starbucks on the way home. We can use her phone," Mark said, sounding a lot more confident about the whole thing than he felt.
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Walker knocked lightly on the door of Mr. Chen's hospital room. A middle-aged Asian woman with bright eyes and a warm smile opened the door and welcomed him in.
"Please come in, Ranger Walker. My brother is feeling much better and is anxious to speak with you," she told him.
"Thank you, Mrs. Pei. Mr. Chen, it's good to see you again, sir," he offered, shaking Mr. Chen's outstretched hand.
"Ranger Walker, I wanted to thank you again for all that you and your fellow Rangers have done for us. How is Ranger Gage?" the older man asked, his voice filled with concern.
"He is physically fine, but he has had some memory loss due to his head injury. He's trying to work through it. I know he will be glad to hear that you are going to make a full recovery," Walker replied.
"I sense that you did not come here to talk about my recovery," Mr. Chen stated.
"No, sir, I was hoping that you could tell me something about the men who robbed you. Anything that you remember could be of help in our investigation," Walker said.
The old man lay still, closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath. With his eyes still closed, he began to speak.
"It was about thirty minutes before closing time and everyone except Mai Lee and I had gone home. Our last customer had gone about ten minutes before this. I was at the register, counting the day's receipts when three men came in wearing black masks over their faces. The first one was very tall and muscular, very strong looking. The second was not as tall and was thinner, but he held the gun and did most of the talking. The last one was smaller than the other two and his eyes – they were blue – looked everywhere at once, like he was afraid the walls would fall at any moment."
"You said the second one did the talking. What did he say?"
"He pointed the gun in my face and said, 'Hand over all the cash.' Then the big one handed me a take-out food bag to put the money in. I did as they said."
"Where was Mai Lee?"
Mr. Chen opened his eyes and Walker saw them fill with tears. "She was in the kitchen. I tried to get the money in the bag quickly so they would leave before she came out front, but my hands were shaking and the money spilled on the floor. The little one helped me pick it up, but by then Mai Lee was in the dining room and the big one saw her…Oh, my sister, I am so sorry."
Mrs. Pei hugged her brother and whispered something in Chinese. When she stood up again, Mr. Chen continued.
"I tried to stop him, but the one with the gun used it to push me away and then it went off. I fell to the floor behind the counter and that is where Ranger Gage found me when he arrived several minutes later. I could not see anything once I was on the ground."
"Did they talk to each other, or maybe call each other by name?"
"The big one spoke to the frightened one. He said, 'Watch the door, little brother.' I assumed he meant the front door, but they must have all been in the kitchen when Ranger Gage came in."
"Did you see which one hit Ranger Gage?" Walker asked hopefully.
"No, I am sorry. I must have passed out. The last thing I remember is telling Ranger Gage they took Mai Lee to the kitchen," Mr. Chen replied.
"Thank you, Mr. Chen. You've been a big help. You rest and get well and I will keep you posted on our investigation," Walker said, shaking Mr. Chen's hand and tipping his hat to Mrs. Pei as he left the room.
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A few doors down the hall, Sydney knocked on the open door of Mai Lee's room. Two Asian men in their late twenties with long shiny black hair and dark eyes stood up from their chairs when she entered.
"May we help you?" asked the taller of the two.
"I'm Ranger Cooke. I came to talk with Mai Lee about Saturday night," Sydney answered, extending her hand to the speaker.
"I am Ning and this is my brother, Xiang," he stated, nodding toward the other man as he grasped Sydney's hand in a firm handshake. "Mai Lee is our sister," he explained.
"I'm very sorry for what's happened to your family, but I was hoping Mai Lee could tell me something about the men who attacked her," Sydney said, looking at the young woman in the bed.
Xiang started to object, but Mai Lee nodded. "I want to help in any way I can, Ranger Cooke. Please excuse my brothers. They are only trying to protect me," she said, smiling and giving Xiang's hand a squeeze. she said something to both men in Chinese and they excused themselves and walked down the hall to their uncle's room.
"I sent them away, so that I can be truthful with you about what happened to me. It would not be proper for me to discuss it with a stranger in their presence," she explained.
"I understand completely. Can you tell me anything that might help us identify the man who hurt you?"
"His eyes were gray, like the sky before a storm, and he smelled like popcorn from the movies. When he pulled his mask up a little so he could kiss me, I noticed a small scar in the shape of a triangle on his chin. His hands were very large, twice the size of mine, and very strong," Mai Lee recounted. Her eyes were dry and she spoke in a clear, steady voice, but Sydney could sense a deep anger lying just beneath the surface.
"Did he say anything?" Sydney asked.
"He told one of the other men to watch the door to the kitchen. He called the other one, 'little brother'," Mai Lee replied.
"Did he say anything else?"
"Do you mean when he attacked me?"
Sydney nodded, greatly impressed by the young woman's strength and courage in the face of reliving her horrific ordeal.
"He said, 'Keep quiet and I won't hurt you. You are so beautiful.' Then he kissed me and put his hands on my breasts under my shirt. That was the first time I screamed and he punched me in the face," she continued, touching the huge black and purple bruise that covered her right cheek. She described the rape as it happened in her uncle's office and then went on to say that when the man was finished, he dragged her into the kitchen and threw her to the floor.
"Then the one with the gun handed it to the smallest one and said, 'My turn.' I screamed again, and then one of them hit me again. The little one called him Johnny, I think. I heard him ask where 'Tex' was and then the big one came back in the kitchen and yelled at the other two to leave right away. I heard sirens just before I blacked out," Mai Lee finished.
"The one they called 'Tex' must have hit Gage, since the other two were still in the kitchen," Sydney observed.
"If that is so, then Ranger Gage is lucky to be alive, as lucky as me," Mai Lee added.
"Yes, he is, Mai Lee. Very lucky," Sydney agreed. "Thank you for talking to me. You have been a big help,' she said, giving the young woman's shoulder a squeeze as she turned to leave.
Closing the door behind her, Sydney saw Walker coming toward her.
"Was Mai Lee able to tell you anything?" he inquired.
"Walker, I can practically draw pictures of these three guys from her descriptions. She was able to see a scar on her rapist and she heard two names, Johnny and Tex," Sydney filled him in, adding, "She also said the guy smelled like movie popcorn. What do you make of that?"
"I don't know yet. Let's get back to headquarters and start looking for known offenders who go by Johnny and Tex and see what we find. Mr. Chen said one of them called another one 'little brother', so maybe at least two of them are related," Walker speculated,
"The family that robs and rapes together…" Sydney started to say, but let the thought go unfinished.
Walker picked up on her comment and added, "Goes to jail together."
"Amen, boss. Amen."
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"Hi, sweetie, you're late. Hi Marty," Juliet called as the two boys approached the outdoor table where she was enjoying a caramel latte.
Mark gave Juliet a quick kiss. "Mmm. Caramel. Yum," he grinned, licking his lips.
"Hey, Juliet, how's it goin'?" Marty posed.
He didn't know Juliet very well, only through his friendship with Mark. Even though he and Mark were pretty good friends, they didn't really travel in the same circles. Mark's family was rich and lived in a gated community that was actually in the zone where Liberty High was located. Marty's family was blue collar all the way, but education was a high priority, so they were paying tuition for Marty to attend Liberty, which was ranked as one of the best high schools in the state.
"Good, Marty, how are you?" Juliet replied. She was surprised to see Mark's lab partner. They rarely spent time together outside of school. Not only that, Mark had told her a little bit about Marty's older brother, Tex, and she hadn't liked what she'd heard. Mark assured her that the brothers were nothing alike; they were even polar opposites physically. Tex was built like a pro wrestler, with long bushy brown hair. Marty was a head shorter, built like a pencil and had short blond hair and wary blue eyes. Still, Juliet wished that Mark would keep his distance from that family.
"I'm OK," Marty answered, keeping his eyes from meeting hers.
"Mark, what's going on?" Juliet insisted. "You two look like a couple of hound dogs that got caught chewing up a hundred dollar pair of shoes."
"We need to use your cell phone. Well, actually, we need you to call someone for us," Mark said, keeping his voice low.
"Who?" Juliet asked, her curiosity running in the red zone.
"That Ranger that busted us on Saturday. Didn't he tell you if you ever needed anything to call him?" Mark rattled off so fast she almost didn't understand him.
"Huh? Ranger Gage?" she confirmed, her hackles rising, since she knew Marty had to have gotten Mark into something pretty serious for him to ever want anything to do with Ranger Gage again. She had to force herself not to yell when she shot back, "What do I need him for, Mark?"
"Just tell him to meet Marty and me here as soon as he can, OK?" Mark pleaded. "You have to trust me, babe. It's not a bad thing. It's serious, but not bad. Will you just please call him?"
"It isn't you I don't trust, Mark," she fumed, shooting Marty a look that would have blistered paint as she opened her cell phone and dialed 4-1-1.
Marty feigned great interest in the front window display of Starbucks as he listened to Juliet talking to the operator.
"Yes, could I please have the number for the Texas Ranger Station Company B? Thank you," she said without a hint of the venom that had been in her voice seconds earlier. While she waited for the 411 operator to connect her with Ranger headquarters, she took a deep breath and hoped Ranger Gage remembered his promise to help her if she ever needed him.
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At about 3:30 p.m., the phone on Gage's desk rang for the first time all day. When he answered it, he hoped it was Sydney with a report on their interviews with Mr. Chen and Mai Lee.
"Texas Rangers Company B, Ranger Gage speaking," he answered automatically.
"Hi Ranger Gage. It's Juliet Davis. Do you remember me?"
The voice was young, female and friendly, but it was as totally unfamiliar to him as the name.
Here we go, Gage thought to himself. Here we go.
End Chapter 8.