The Crusader Ch. 09

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woodmanone
woodmanone
2,273 Followers

"Delgato Hispanic?"

"Only his name. From what I hear, his father was some kind of big shot along the Mexican border in Texas; El Paso I think. Anyway he came to St. Louis after some guy and met a woman. They had a thing and Delgato was the result."

"His father still in the picture?"

"Nope. Father's dead. He found the guy he was lookin for. Seems his machismo crap from Texas wasn't such a big deal after all. "

"I bet this Delgato knows the buyer," Rollie offered. "And he might just be a little pissed that the buyer jumped ship on him." Rollie paused in thought and then said, "I think it's time I paid Mr. Delgato a visit." Rollie finished his drink, thanked Calvin and turned to leave. As he got to the door, Calvin called out.

"Rollie, be careful. This Delgato cat is the real deal; he's not like his father. He might not like you askin questions."

"Don't much care if he does. I've got a feeling that Tully got involved some way with that gun deal. Delgato will tell me what he knows or he won't be doing business in St. Louis again; maybe he won't be doing business, period."

Calvin had seen Rollie agitated and involved before but he'd never seen him this intense; or angry. He'd never seen Rollie's eyes so hard and deadly looking. I feel sorry for Delgato if he gives Rollie any crap. He waved at Rollie as he left the shop.

Rollie's truck was untouched and unharmed. Walking over to the derelict, Rollie handed him the other half of the $20 bill. "Good job man," he said and climbed into his truck.

********************

Rollie drove into the parking area at the west end of Union Station, got out of his truck, and walked further west along Market Street. Union station had at one time been the world's largest and busiest train station; handling over 100 thousand passengers a day. The main part of the building was constructed out of Indiana limestone and was a National Historic Landmark.

As railroad traffic declined the building fell into disrepair, but in the 1980's was renovated into a large hotel, with shops and restaurants. Now, better than 20 years later, the grand old building and the surrounding area were again headed toward the seedy side.

The spray from the huge fountain in Aloe Plaza across Market from Union Station caused Rollie to duck his head as he walked. Strangely, in spite of developing blight in the area, neither Union Station nor Aloe Plaza had been plagued by graffiti artist or taggers as they were called. A lot of people called them vandals.

Entering Mississippi Nights, Rollie stepped to the side of the door to let his eyes get accustom to the low light of the bar. He saw a door with an "office" sign at the end of the long carved wooden bar. In front of the door stood what could have passed for a big bear. The guard was about 6' 7 and as nearly big around as he was tall.

Rollie walked toward the door and tried to step around the Grizzle Bear. "This is private, you can't go in there," the big man said as he stepped in front of Rollie.

Pulling out a $20 bill, Rollie handed it to the guard. "Tell Mr. Delgato, that Rollie Chambers would appreciate a few minutes of his time. Tell him I've got a business proposition."

The guard made the twenty disappear and turned toward the door. "Wait here," he ordered. In less than five minutes the man returned. "Mr. Delgato is busy. He says to come back another time and maybe he'll talk to you."

Rollie sighed and shook his head. He tried to walk around the guard and go through the door, but the man put his big hand on Rollie's shoulder to stop him. Rollie, using the training he'd gotten from the St. Louis Police Department and his friend Tully, grabbed the hand and twisted it inward.

As he twisted with his right hand, his left pushed against the elbow which forced the giant to his knees. The man was cussing and yelling in pain; Rollie reached over and slapped the guard over the ear with his palm. The big man used his uninjured hand over his ear.

"I'm here now, so I guess it would be better if I could see him tonight," Rollie said.

The tone of Rollie's voice, the look in his eyes and the easy way Rollie had put him down, made the big man decide that he could be brave another day. He just watched as Rollie went through the door.

"Thanks for your help," Rollie said as he closed the door behind him.

"Who the hell are you?" The man sitting behind a desk asked when Rollie entered the office. Another behemoth, leaning against the back wall, straightened and started to pull a pistol out of his waistband. Rollie drew his Glock 21C with a speed that would have done justice to an old time western pistolero.

"That's not a good idea," Rollie said and pointed the Glock in the man's direction; the man raised his hands and returned to leaning against the wall. Turning back to the man at the desk he holstered his gun and said, "You must be Mr. Delgato; I'm Rollie Chambers and I'd like a few minutes of your time."

"I've heard about you," Delgato replied. Motioning toward Rollie's pistol he said, "I think you won't use that." Delgato smiled. "You're one of the good guys."

Rollie stared at the man for a few seconds and the smile faded from Delgato's face. The only thing Hispanic about Delgato was his name; the man had blond hair and pale blue eyes. "Normally you'd be right John; I don't shoot people for no reason. But this isn't a normal time. If you don't answer my questions I'll put a bullet in your knee. Each time you refuse to answer, I'll find another spot to shoot you."

The guard leaning against the wall stood up straight again. "Better tell him to leave, because if he moves again you'll be short a man."

Delgato decided that Rollie wasn't bluffing and motioned his man out of the room. Rollie took a straight back chair and lodged it under the doorknob. Then he did the same to the door leading outside.

"Now we can talk uninterrupted," Rollie said.

"What'da you want Chambers?"

"And here I thought we were on a first name basis John. Oh well. About a month ago you had a weapons deal fall through."

"How'd you know that?" Rollie waved for Delgato to continue. "Yeah, I did. The bastards wanted the guns like right now and they didn't want to pay for the special handling." While he was talking, Delgato slowly, as if by accident, moved his hand toward a desk drawer and the pistol hidden inside.

"John, don't be stupid," Rollie ordered. Delgato leaned back in his chair. Rollie nodded and said, "Better. The way I heard it you couldn't get the guns as quickly as they wanted and you tried to make a year's profit on that one deal." Delgato started to respond and Rollie motioned for him to be quiet.

"I don't really care why the deal went south. What I do care about is who the buyer or buyers were." Rollie gave Delgato an evil, menacing grin. "Think you could give me that info John?"

Delgato hesitated and then slumped in his chair. He believed Rollie's threats. "Four guys, cat named Jorge and one named Tommy did all the talking; the other two didn't say nothing."

"Descriptions please," Rollie requested.

Delgato described the four men. "Funny thing, Jorge is Hispanic, Tommy is a white guy, and the other two were a black and an Asian. Never saw a group like that."

"Anything else about them; scars, tattoos?"

"Jorge's got a spider web tattoo on his neck. You know one of those macho, barrio type things. Macho my ass, my old man had one too, and look what it got him." Delgato's eyes sort of lost focus as he thought about his father. Shaking himself, he looked back at Rollie. "One other thing, they all wore the same kind of jacket. Satin or something shiny with a circle on the back; they had the letters SLRC inside the circle."

"Any idea what it means." Rollie asked.

"I asked Jorge about it; he said the letters stood for St. Louis Rainbow Coalition. He didn't say what that meant."

"One more question John. What type and how many guns did they want?"

"They wanted semi auto .45s and 9MMs. But the thing that torpedoed the deal was the full autos they wanted." Rollie motioned for Delgato to continue. "They wanted 10 fully automatic assault rifles and a couple of HK MP 5s. Those would have taken some time to get and Jorge didn't want to wait. Cheap bastard didn't want to pay the price for them either."

"I was wrong; I've got another question. Did they give the reason they wanted an arsenal like that?"

Delgato nodded. "Tommy said something about their gang takin over the South Side. Then Jorge said there was a new sheriff in town and laughed like hell." The gun dealer looked at Rollie for several seconds. "I know you used to be with the police. "You gonna get the cops down on me?"

"The other rackets you've got going, the prostitution, gambling and such, isn't my concern; that's the police department's job." Rollie stepped closer to Delgato. "But the gun running impacts the whole city, including my neighborhood. I suggest you get out of that business. If you don't, I won't call the cops; I'll deal with you myself. We understand each other?" Delgato hesitated and then nodded.

Rollie turned, took the chair away, and opened the door. Turning back toward Delgato, Rollie said, "Nice doing business with you John. See ya."

Walking back to his truck, Rollie kept alert in case Delgato sent someone after him. He didn't think the man had the stones, but Rollie wasn't taking any chances. Rollie started his truck and headed back to Calvin's. Now that he had more information, Calvin could intensify the search on the street for the SLRC.

********************

Tully waited for a few minutes after his captors finished talking and bragging then lifted his head. "Hey, why did you leave my leg and what's that SLRC crap on your jackets?"

The one called Tommy walked over and kicked Tully. "Show some respect old man. It stands for the St. Louis Rainbow Coalition."

"Back off Tommy," Jorge ordered. To Tully he said, "You gave us some trouble before the drug started working so I thought you'd be easier to control if you only had one leg." Jorge nudged Tully with his toe and added, "Looks like I was right."

"Untie me and I'll show you easy," Tully replied. After getting nothing but a frown from Jorge, Tully asked, "What coalition?"

"Our loyalties are to each other," Jorge said as he walked closer to Tully. "We'll accept all races and colors in our army; as long as they follow our orders."

"Army? Sounds like a common everyday gang to me."

"Maybe, but the problem with gangs is their loyalties. All that macho bull about being brothers and such. The SLRC has one goal, to control the city. The first step is to control the South Side; we'll branch out from there."

"I think the Krauts might have something to say about that," Tully replied. "They like to think they run the South Side.

The "Deutschlanders" were a gang whose members were of mostly German ancestry. The gang was sort of headquartered on the near south side of St. Louis in the Soulard district; it was close to the Anheuser Busch brewery and was in the process of revitalization. The district was a mixture of young families, some retired people and fashionable shops and stores.

The "Krauts", as they were called by their victims, offered "protection" to the store owners and gambling to the more adventurous. The gang wore that derogatory name with pride and defended their territory against all comers; using violence when necessary.

"Those Kraut heads won't be a problem for long," Jorge bragged and then with a grin said, "Not after you help us."

Tully didn't like the look on Jorge's face. Judging by his smugness, it don't look good for the home team, he thought. "I don't know what you expect Vato, but you'll play hell getting any help from me."

"I expect you to get us into your shooting school, I expect you to use your security code, the voice recognition and fingerprint scan, to get us into the armory and I expect you to get us the full auto assault rifles that you have on hand."

"Not gonna happen," Tully replied.

"Oh yes, but it will happen Gunnery Sergeant Tully," Jorge answered. "You see we did a very careful recon on your company. Isn't that what you Marines call it, a recon for Intel? The only other two instructors that have security access are single; they don't have anyone they care about or that care about them.

Sorta sad," Jorge said in an aside. "Being ex-Marines we might have a problem forcing them to help us. But you Gunny, you have people you care about; people that care about you."

"Former, Tully said in a cold voice.

"What former?"

"It's former Marine, not ex; Once a Marine always a Marine."

Tully sat up as straight as he could and stared at Jorge. Tully's eyes narrowed and become hard and dangerous. He didn't waste time making idle threats but he calmed himself thinking about how much he was going to enjoy dealing with Jorge once he got loose.

Jorge noticed Tully's reaction and took a step back before he could stop himself. "You have a Miss Julie Colwell and a Miss Jessica Talbert, and a Mr. Rollie Chambers. All of these people are friends, almost like family, and in Miss Julie's case, more than friends." Jorge gathered himself. "Sergeant Tully, you will help us or your friends, each and every one, will meet with a horrible accident."

Tully's mind was racing. If I can get to the armory vault at the training center I can put a stop to this, even on one leg, he thought. He shook his head and sighed; the sight made Jorge and the others smile, thinking they had Tully right where they wanted him. No matter what, the SLRC will not get those automatic weapons, Tully said silently to himself.

********************

Rollie stopped his truck in front of Calvin's. The watchdog from his previous trip was again or still leaning against the wall. This time he held a brown paper bag wrapped around a bottle of cheap wine. He waved the bottle at Rollie. "Thanks man," the derelict said.

"Want to earn another twenty?" Rollie asked. The man nodded and Rollie handed him half of a $20 bill. "Same deal as before friend. Guard the truck and you'll get the other half when I leave."

The man took the half bill, pulled his pants up off his hips and sat on the front bumper of the truck. "It'll still be here when you come back," he promised and took a long drink from his bottle. Rollie, smiled, nodded and entered Calvin's building. He'll be lucky to still be conscious when I come back, Rollie thought.

Calvin came out of a back room to meet Rollie. "Did you talk to Delgato? Did he give you any trouble?"

"Yes I talked to him. Mr. Delgato is not as mean as he likes everyone to think." Rollie smiled but didn't go into details. "Got some names I need you to check on for me, Calvin." He told Calvin about the four men and the SLRC. "See what you can find out about them for me; call me when you get something. Okay?'

"I'll have something by tomorrow night."

Rollie smiled his thanks and went back to his truck. As he thought, his guard dog was lying asleep on the sidewalk next to Rollie's truck. He knelt down and stuffed the other half of the $20 bill into the man's front pants pocket. "There you go old timer."

"Did you find him?" Jessica asked when Rollie walked into their apartment.

"Not yet, but I think I'm getting closer." Rollie took her hand and led her to the huge couch in the living area. He explained to her about the botched weapons deal, the SLRC members, and his thinking that Missouri Tactical was involved.

"You think this SLRC is the reason Tully is missing? Why"

"Got nothing but intuition, just a hunch, I guess you'd say. But I'd bet chalk, money, or marbles that they're involved."

"Julie's going nuts. She thinks she's responsible for Tully being gone." Jessica pulled Rollie's arm around her and snuggled closer to him. "Tully's part of our family; like a big brother. Find our brother, please Rollie, find him."

"I will Jess, I promise, I will," Rollie said as he put his arms around Jessica.

Later that night, Rollie's phone gave off its love song ringtone. "Who the hell is calling me at midnight?" He picked up the phone and answered, "Chambers."

"Rollie this is Andy, you know Anonymous Andy, Calvin's friend."

"Yeah, Andy. What do you want?"

"Calvin's in the hospital. He said I should call you and let you know; they won't let him use a phone. Says you should come see him, like right now."

"What hospital Andy and how bad is he hurt?"

"He's at the Washington University Med Center. I don't know how bad he's hurt; they would let me stay with him. Then he told me to call you."

"Are you still at the Med Center Andy?"

"Yeah, I'm in the lobby of the ER."

"Tell Calvin, I'm on my way. Better make yourself scarce before the cops get there. Thanks Andy."

Jessica got up while Rollie was talking and left their bedroom. He got dressed and as he walked into the living area, Jessica handed him a cup of coffee. Rollie smiled and gave her a quick kiss. "Be back soon as I can."

Walking into the ER, Rollie asked the woman behind the counter about Calvin. They directed him to treatment area 42 which was closed off by a sliding curtain. He peaked through the opening of the curtain and saw Calvin was lying on the bed arguing with a nurse.

"Damn it, I'm okay. Let me go home," Calvin said in an angry voice.

"No more of your nonsense Mr. Deters," the nurse said. "You'll go home when I say you can and not a minute sooner."

"Better listen to the lady Calvin," Rollie suggest as he walked into the treatment area. "You look like you've been rode hard and put away wet."

Calvin didn't look like he needed to get out of bed. He had a large, deep, cut over one eye, his lips were swollen as if they'd had collagen injections, and the rest of his face showed the aftermath of a beating. Two fingers on his left hand were splinted as was his thumb on the right hand.

"Huh? What?" Calvin didn't understand the phrase. "Never mind...guess Andy got hold of you."

"Yes he did. What happened?"

"The SLRC didn't like me askin questions so they gave me this," he said pointing at his face and then his broken fingers, "to tell me to stop." Calvin sucked a drink of water through the straw in a glass on the table; his lips were so bad he couldn't use them to drink. "But I got the information you wanted."

"Sorry Calvin. I didn't mean for you to get busted up."

The injured man laughed and then groaned at the pain it caused. "Isn't the first time...and probably won't be the last." He sipped his water and then continued, "Got names and a little history on those assholes."

The nurse returned and checked Calvin's vitals. Then she inspected the splints and the sutures in the large cut over his eye. "Doctor Wells wants to keep you over night for observation; you might have a concussion. So we'll be moving you up to a room very shortly Mr. Deters." She turned and looked at Rollie. "You best finish your visit and leave young man," she ordered.

Before Rollie could say anything, Calvin spoke. "Nurse, I know you're trying to help me and are just doing your job but give me a few minutes with my friend." She looked at him impatiently and he asked, "Please?"

She huffed a little, checked Calvin's vital signs again. "You've got ten minutes young man," she said poking Rollie in the chest with her forefinger. "Ten minutes and then I'll have security on you. Understand?"

Rollie nodded and smiled as the nurse left. "Tough woman," he said to Calvin. "Reminds me of Julie."

"Whose Julie?"

"She's Tully's woman; Julie is the head nurse at St. Louis U Med Center. We've only got ten minutes so tell me what you learned."

"The SLRC has about ten members, but those four you told me about are the real players; the rest are just wannabe tough guys and gang bangers." Calvin took another sip of his water. "Wish this was Gentleman Jack," he said in a low voice. "My friends, and some of Andy's, hear that the 'Army', as they call themselves, wants to take over the city; but they're going to start on the near south side."

woodmanone
woodmanone
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