Vatos Muertos Ch. 02

Author's note: All persons involved in any sexual acts are above the age of 18.

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Chapter 2

Sarge lived in a large four bedroom, two story "Shaker" style home with a big front yard. It had a large front porch, separate two car garage, small backyard, and a screened in back porch. It came with a gravel drive. The home was perfect for him, his wife and two children.

Except, his children moved out years ago and it had been ten years since his wife left. Still, the house was nice. The phone was ringing.

Sarge groggily reached for it. The caller ID said "Unknown."

"Hello?" He slurred.

"Sarge? It's Regina. You gotta get to the station. Now!"

Sarge wracked his brain before saying... "Who?"

"Regina Ortiz!" She said with exasperation. "They picked up my baby girl a few minutes ago. You gotta get down there!"

"Reggie, it's..." He checked the clock next to the bed. "8 O-clock in the fuckin mornin. I've had less than four hours of sleep, baby."

"Don't you "baby" me, redneck! She told me what you did!"

Aw fuck.

"You owe her, cabron. Now, you get your white privileged ass down there and you help her!"

"Alright! Alright! Yeah. I'll be down there in a few minutes."

"You better!"

He could hear her cussing him in Spanglish as she hung up the phone. He dropped the phone on the bed and pulled on jeans and a t-shirt. Once he was dressed and had all his stuff he got into his old truck and drove to precinct two.

"Hey Sarge. What the hell are you doin here?" Asked the Desk Sergeant, Croller.

"Getting a cup of coffee, actually." Croller laughed. Sarge walked around the front desk to the coffee machine and poured himself some. Once he had the creamer and sugar he walked back to Croller. "Reggie Ortiz called me this mornin. Beggin me to come down here because we had "her baby." Sarge did the air quotes before taking his first sip.

"Bruja?" Sarge nodded in reply. "Yeah, Detectives Cooper and Morrison have her in interrogation room 1." He knew they were the detectives that headed up the big bust last night so it made sense they would want to talk to her. Cooper was a great detective but Morrison was a fucking idiot. Or at least that's the kindest way Sarge could think of the man.

"Have they started?"

Croller shook his head. "Nah. Morrison wants her to stew a bit."

It was Sarge's turn to shake his head. "We have GOT to get that moron to stop watching cop shows."

True dyed in the wool murders do not freak out because you leave them in a room alone. Like many of us, they tend to think everyone else will do what they have done. A womanizer thinks his wife is cheating on him. A thief thinks everyone is trying to steal from him and murders tend to think someone may be trying to kill him. Like last night with Bruja? When she was sure Sarge was going to smoke her. Right now? In a room alone and no way for anyone to sneak up on her to put a bullet in her head. Sarge was positive that what she was thinking was somewhere along the lines of "This is nice. It's so peaceful in here. Ooo and it has AC! Goooooaaaal!"

Croller was still laughing from Sarge's "cop show" joke as Sarge walked to Observation room 1. There was a two way mirror that allowed him to see Bruja without her seeing him. She sat on the far side of the interview table facing the mirror. Captain Sung was in there waiting for the interview to begin. He asked the expected "why are you here?" and Sarge explained again.

"So what DO we have on her?"

The Captain answered. "You know how they say, "For {sympathy} look between shit and syphilis in the dictionary?" Sarge almost spit up his coffee. "Well, we got sympathy."

Sarge was wiping his mouth. "You know, that doesn't make any sense. Right?"

The Captain nodded. "Yeah, but I haven't had a chance to say that in a long time so I wanted to squeeze it in."

"What has the Crime Scene Unit turned up?"

"We found two of the three rounds she fired last night but that gun she's using has never been used in a crime. So we got jack -and- shit."

"What about the team at her mamma's house?'

"Judge wouldn't give us a warrant. A bunch of cops saw a Latina girl shooting a magnum. He didn't feel that was enough to issue a warrant."

"Well, fuck... Wait..." Sarge looked from Bruja back to the Captain. "Then why is she here?"

"Morrison thinks he can get her to talk."

Sarge began to laugh very hard until the Captain looked at him with disdain. Then he laughed even harder until the Captain went back to watching Bruja. Who was now humming and drumming on the table to some Techno-Tejano beat.

"And you believed him?!" Sarge smiled.

The Captain shrugged. "He had a good bust last night. I figured he earned the chance." The Captain looked back at Sarge for some sign of understanding.

It was Sarge's turn to shrug. "Yeah. He did. He did." He nodded.

A few minutes later the small red light came on above the observation camera. This signaled that the audio and video were now running. Not long after that Detectives Morrison and Cooper walked into the room to sit across from Bruja.

"For the record, I am Detective Morrison and with me is Detective Cooper. Today we are interviewing Quirina "Bruja" Ortiz, a known member of the Vatos Muertos gang..."

"Family." Bruja interjected.

"Excuse me?"

"They're not a gang. They're my family."

"We don't recognize them as such."

Bruja shrugged. "OK."

"Where were you last night, Quirina."

"I was at my mom's house."

"Your home?"

"Welllll, it's more my mom's home than mine. I'm not always there. I spend a lot of time couch surfin with friends or girlfriends. You know?"

"But it IS your home of record. Is it not?"

"It's where my mail goes, so if that makes it my home then sure. It's my home."

Sarge looked at the Captain. "I'm already feeling dumberer."

The Captain grimaced and nodded.

"And what did you do last night at your home?"

Bruja went through a list of cleaning, dishes, laundry and so on. It only took Sarge a moment to realize she probably just asked her mom what she had done. Then "Mom did the dishes" turned into "We, did the dishes."

"You understand that several police officers identified you at a drug bust last night?"

Bruja shook her head. "Well, that's not possible. I wasn't there, man."

"Don't call me "Man."

Bruja threw her hands in the air as Sarge looked to the ceiling for help.

"Lord, give me patience!" Sarge said.

"Oh, don't ever ask for that." The Captain whined.

"Why?"

"We know you weren't home, Quirina! It's just a matter of time before we can prove it!"

Both the Captain and Sarge cringed in the observation room.

"If you ask for patience, he puts you where you NEED patience." The Captain said in a miserable tone.

"Aw, fuck."

"Did - you - see... my Vaqueros there?"

Cooper shook his head. "No."

"Did you see my bike?"

"No." Cooper said again.

"So, why would I be at some big deal without my boys or my bike?"

Morrison interjected, "Hey! You shot at cops last night! We will find that gun and when we do your ass is going to jail!"

"If {I} shot at cops then you would have [dead] cops!"

Morrison leaned across the table and backhanded her hard enough to rock her almost out of the chair to her left. She immediately came back to a sitting position. Followed through with a left jab to his nose knocking him back into his chair. Cooper jumped out of his seat to come around the table but she had jumped to her feet by then. He stopped because of how quickly she had taken a fighting stance. When the door of the interrogation room slammed open, Cooper looked to see who was charging in. While Bruja pivoted to face them.

Sarge, punched Morrison so hard in the side of his head that he -did- fall out of his chair. He then grabbed the detective by the shirt and jacket, pulled him up and slammed him against the far wall.

"Are you a complete and total fucking idiot!?"

Morrison was too stup... dazed to speak.

Sarge looked at Cooper with fury in his eyes. "Get your ass back in that chair."

Detective Cooper re-took his seat. Sarge liked Cooper but he was not going to do some "hold the blue line" bullshit for Morrison. He drug Morrison out of the room and shut the door. They could hear screaming and more than a few thumps that sounded like Sarge was not done with Morrison.

"Are you OK?" Morrison asked.

She hadn't realized she was still standing ready to fight. "Uh, yeah." she said as she dropped her guard. "He just surprised me."

Cooper nodded. "Did you want to sit down?"

"Uh... sure?" She sat down again. "I should have laughed it off." she said absentmindedly at the door.

"Get the fuck out of here before I kill you!" Came through the door.

"Yeah, that's bad." Cooper commented.

"Because Sarge is pissed at him."

"No. Sarge was doin the punchin... but that last bit was our Captain."

"Ohhhh." Even she felt bad for Morrison now.

Unbeknownst to them the red light turned off on the video camera. A few moments later Captain Sung entered the room. He cleared his throat as if he was gathering his thoughts.

"Bruja, you have every right to file a complaint against Detective Morrison if you want."

"...But you don't want me to."

"It would make all of us look bad and it would not cost him his career." She looked at him as if to ask >why?< The Captain continued, "His uncle is the Commissioner of police."

"Ah... Well, I think he's had it worse than me. I'm good with droppin it."

"I do appreciate it." He nodded. "Thank you for coming in and answering our questions. I am sorry things got out of hand. That shouldn't have happened but you are free to go."

Bruja smiled. "It's fine. My mother hits harder than that." She said as she stood to leave.

She bumped into Sarge on the steps outside of the building. "You expectin a "thank you," pinche?"

He shook his head. "No. I didn't do it for you. I did for us." She looked confused. "That jackass keeps thinking life is an episode of "Blue Bloods." She smiled and nodded.

"You're Captain said sorry for what happened." Sarge squinted at her while he tried to deduce where she was going with this. "I don't recall gettin an "I'm sorry" from you though."

"For last night?" She gave him one cool nod. "Probably because I'm not sorry."

"Fuck you, man."

Sarge shrugged. "It seemed to me that we both enjoyed it."

"Look, puto. Making me cum is not the same as me wanting it. What the fuck am I supposed to tell my girlfriend? "Hey, Mia. I got sodomized by a pinche cop last night an I liked it." She ended with an big insincere smile.

"Well that's bullshit. I haven't seen you with the same girl more than once your whole life. So don't throw out some crap about how you suddenly have a relationship whose love is so true..." He said in mock poetic tone. "that you have GOT to tell her about what happened." She was shaking her head at him. "And I think you're only saying this shit because deep down you know you like dick."

"Fuck you!" she stepped forward and punched him in the sternum. It hurt and forced a grunt out of him. Sarge heard cheers coming from a car parked on the street. Several Vatos were waiting near an "Old School" El Camino. They had been watching Bruja and him as they talked. "You don't know me! OK?!" She took a few steps away before turning back to him. "I like girls! I eat pussy because it gets me off! You!..." She waived her finger at him like he was something disgusting. "Pulled some fucked up emotional shit that... Chinga su madre pinche marrano motherfucker!"

Sarge watched her storm off to her friends. He realized it must have been Pancho's car as he was watching from across the roof with the driver side door open. Pancho was one of the leaders of the Vatos Muertos. He had a decent rap sheet for a guy who was really not that bad of a guy. Late twenties, good looking. And he always wore an old mechanics shirt with "Pancho" on the name tag over his left breast. He said it was because he was tired of people stealing his shirts.

Sarge watched as Bruja hugged her boys hello. Then got into the front seat with Pancho and a younger banger that sat between them. Sarge headed home.

Bruja kissed her baby brother on the forehead when they were in the car. Miguel was sixteen. But she still saw him as that cute little twerp that kept sneaking into her room to mess with her stuff.

"What was all that about?" Pancho asked.

"Just bullshit." She answered.

"They got anything on you?"

"Naw. Morrison popped me one."

"No shit!?" Pancho looked at her.

She was laughing. "It was weak shit, man." She smiled. "I punched him in the face and put him back in his chair." Her brother and Pancho were laughing. "Then Sarge came in and kicked his ass right in front of me."

"Bullshit! Really?" Pancho asked. She smiled and nodded. After a moment Pancho was nodding too. "...Then why'd you hit him just now?"

She was shaking her head as she shrugged. "That uh... That... It was somethin personal. Between us."

Miguel spoke up for the first time. "You know, I heard mom talkin to him on the phone this mornin." Bruja looked at him. "She said some pretty odd soundin shit." She didn't comment.

"Did he hurt you?" Pancho asked in surprised tone.

"No." She shook her head. "He fucked me up." She said while rubbing her eyes. "He's got me twisted... but he didn't hurt me."

It would be three weeks before Sarge would see her again.

---

[All Clark - 2 - O units report to warehouse at Covington and Hermes. Complaint about noise disturbance. Over.]

"Dispatch, this is Adam - Clark - 2 - O - 5, why are all of us responding to a noise complaint? Over."

[Vatos Muertos are throwing a party there Sarge. The Lieutenant wants to make sure we have enough people on site if things go bad. Over.]

"Thank's Dispatch. All Clark - 2 - O units check in and assemble at the fast stop on parker before proceeding to location."

Once all six of them had met up at the convenience store. They rolled on to the warehouse in caravan. When they arrived they found a large loud party with heavy rap music and bright lights going on inside. It looked like a fantastic club. It was in the middle of nowhere. Nothing but old dilapidated warehouses and abandoned stores. There was no one around to be disturbed by the noise. Sarge felt like a dick. The Muertos couldn't have chosen a more considerate location to have their party.

"This is fuckin stupid." Commented Patrolman Elster as they got out of their cars.

"Agreed." Replied Sarge. "When we get there you four break into teams of two and do sweeps. Elster, you man the door. I'll find the leadership and let them know why we have to sweep and that we'll be out of their hair as soon as we can. And for the LOVE of God. If it's not a serious crime then don't do anything. Understood?"

When his men nodded he lead them over to the main doors. There was a large group of men and women hanging around outside. One of the younger ones stepped forward as the police approached.

"$30 cover for cops."

"Get out the damn way before you turn some dumbass sweep into a real thing." Sarge replied. He could see one of the older Muertos laughing and he was pretty sure he knew the man. "Bolo?" The man stepped towards him. Bolo was an easy to understand kind of fellow. A young black man with nothing to prove. He liked to smoke hemp. He liked that nobody fucked with him. And he loved the Muertos because they were the only family he had. An easy man to predict as well. Cops love that.

"Hey, gringo. What brings you out here?"

They shook hands and did a half hug. "Got a noise complaint on this party."

Bolo looked around as if he was looking to see who could've complained. "Cows got cell phones now?" The stockyard was about a half mile away and it was the nearest life to this party.

Sarge looked surprised. "Yeah." He nodded. "You didn't know?" Bolo mocked an expression of confusion while Sarge laughed. "Pancho inside?" He asked.

"Yeah. You'll see a little nook on the right. Can't miss him, vato."

Sarge made his goodbyes and led his men inside. He left Elster just inside the doors in case some idiot ran for it and sent the others on their sweeps. He headed over to what looked like a "Nook." He saw a group of people gathered around it. It was a mixture of soldiers and their girls. Many of them he recognized. He saw them often enough.

As he approached he could see Pancho leaning over to speak to an old black gangbanger. The man must have been in his fifties. He was wearing wrap around sunglasses and an oakland Raiders dew rag on his head. He looked like he didn't want to be recognized. Which was funny to Sarge because he recognized him immediately. Mr. Nelson or "Harry" since he and Sarge had been friends for over two decades now. He ran a neighborhood grocery store with a small dining area that the Muertos like to hang out in.

Pancho was leaning over with his girl under his other arm. He was laughing with Harry about something. Bruja was doing the same thing on the other side. Including the pretty young woman tucked under her arm. She was wearing a small black businessman's fedora with a silver hatband. A silver with black streaks button down blouse. The wide collar was open down to her cleavage. And the tight grey slacks and black heels probably made her ass look fantastic. Sarge shook himself out of his thoughts as she looked up to see him approach. Her smile faded.

"I would have invited you if I had your number, cop!" She yelled over the music.

"You know where I live."

"That goes both ways." She said as she slid her arm from around her date.

Sarge pulled over a chair and sat near the three kings before answering her. "I didn't think you wanted to see me." He said as a matter of fact.

She seemed to give a cynical kind of laugh before storming off. He watched her leave. Those pants -did- make her ass look good. He turned back in time to see her date scowling at him before she left as well.

"You're not very popular tonight, amigo." Pancho stated.

Sarge nodded. "We got a noise complaint on this party."

"You're shittin me!" Replied Pancho.

Sarge nodded and shrugged. "We gotta do our sweep and then we can get out of here." Pancho nodded. "When we go I'm gonna leave one of my men a few buildings away. So when the asshole who called in the complaint think's to call in "shots fired." Our man can tell us it's bogus."

Pancho shrugged, "Very decent of you."

It was Sarge's turn to shrug. "No thoughts on any of this Harry?"

Harry gave a big smile. "Shit, hermano. I thought I had you fooled, man." Sarge shook his head and smiled. "Finally caught me flat footed here."

"Nah. Caught you flat footed about seven years ago. When you were kicking that kids ass. Ernesto?... Ernie Vasquez! Yeah you were schoolin him right in front of fifteen Muertos and they were just watchin. I remember thinkin if that man ain't got a badge and they're just standing there watching it then he's got - to - be...?" Sarge smiled.

Harry smiled and nodded. "Yeah. Little motherfucker was picking pockets in my store." He shrugged. "Had to set him straight." Sarge nodded again. Harry leaned in. "...She doesn't want you dead, hermano."

"What?"

"Bruja! I told her you're like a brother to me but she's like my daughter. So if she wanted you dead, we could make that happen... She said, no." Sarge nodded. "She was cryin."

"Harry... I don't have some great excuse for what I did. Alright? I wish I did. I wish I had some great white whiney explanation for it. But I don't..." He shook his head. "I've always had it bad for that girl and it got away from me in that fuckin alley."

"That's not the part that has her all fucked up."

"Well then what the fuck is she mad about?!"

Harry laughed. "She thinks you used her. And once you shot your load she's nothing but another little puta to you."