“Hello,” a voice slightly out of breath answered.
“Who is this?” the judge asked.
“Who is this, lady?”
“This is Judge Able and I’m trying to reach Jose Juarez,” she responded, getting out of bed.
“Good judge, then I can tell you in person; it’s three down now and twelve to go.”
She heard laughter then the phone went dead.
She took a deep breath and bowed her head for a moment. This is getting way out of hand she decided. She had been fond of Jose since he had been an illegal standing before her in her first courtroom. His only crime was that he was on the wrong side of a man made line on a map, looking for a job. Damn, damn, damn!
She dialed the chief and told him what had happened and then called Matt.
“Hello,” she heard Matt’s sleepy voice on the other end of the line.
“Hey, Matt,” she said.
“What’s up doc?” he asked.
“I think he got Jose,” she said and proceeded to tell Matt about waking up and making the call to Jose’s mobile.
“Jesus, partner, call me sometime with good news,” he said, “I kind of liked the man.”
“He was hard not to like,” the judge said.
“Well, put on the coffee, we might as well wait at your place until we know where to go,” Matt said.
Beth got up and put the coffee on and took a quick shower, dressing in a pants suit she added a little make up to liven up her tired face and walked into the kitchen just as Matt knocked on her back door.
“You have a flashlight he asked her?”
“Sure,” she went to her utility drawer and pulled out a large flashlight and handed it to Matt.
“You always leave your car in the driveway?” he asked.
“What’s with the questions, detective?”
“Let me check before we get upset,” he said.
He went out the front door and walked across the circular drive to her coupe parked near the garage. The trunk had been pried open and blood had dripped from the trunk to a congealed puddle in the driveway.
He sighed and yelled for her to call the cops.
Matt walked to the porch and asked if her sprinklers were on a timer and she said yes and pointed to the control box.
He turned the watering system off and when she asked if it was Jose he said, “I didn’t mess with the evidence, Judge, I couldn’t tell but my guess is yes.”
She dialed Lowe and the coroner and she and Matt sat on the steps to her front porch while officers taped off the area and the front lawn filled with police personnel.
The judge brought out a card table and made coffee in a huge pot she kept for family gatherings while Matt carried out jars of creamer and containers of sugar with plastic spoons and Styrofoam cups.
Several cop cars were parked with their headlights trained on the judge’s coupe and red, blue, and orange lights flashed while police radios blared out in the night. Most of the nearby homes had lights on after the occupants were roused by the unusual noise and activity at the judge's house. Patrolmen were canvassing the neighborhood for any information about unusual sounds or activity.
The chief showed up and poured himself some coffee before he sat down with Matt and the judge.
The chief told her, “I think you better move to the hotel judge, you might be his next victim.”
The judge started to protest but the chief was adamant, “Judge I can’t cover the fourteenth floor and your place too, I just don’t have the personnel and the whole floor is already covered by the trial expenses.”
“It makes sense judge,” Matt said.
“All right, I’ll pack a bag and Matt can take me over when we’re finished here.”
A patrolman trotted up and told the chief, “We found Juarez’s car abandoned about two blocks from here, with what looks like blood smeared on the trunk. I left my partner watching it.”
The chief got on the phone and called more lab personnel to secure and investigate the abandoned car and when he finished talking he listened for several minutes and sighed as he put the cell phone back in its holder.
He turned to the judge, “Cops getting off duty at the hotel found blood on the cement floor in the parking garage. It’s taped off and being guarded while they wait for the lab guys.”
“Jesus,” Matt said, “The guy must have taken him in the parking garage and stuffed him in his own trunk and then drove him here and transferred the body to the judge’s car.”
“That’s taking a big risk of being caught,” the judge said, “But at this point he’s running on adrenalin and probably feeling pretty invincible.”
Lowe walked over from the judge’s car and told them, “We have a positive I.D. its Jose Juarez all right.”
“You have a verified address?” the judge asked.
Lowe gave her the address and she asked Matt, “Shall we do the honors?”
“You going to notify the next of kin?” the chief asked.
“The least I can do,” she said, “He has a wife and several kids.”
She packed her bag along with several bottles of Jameson and Matt drove them to the middle class neighborhood where Jose had proudly purchased a home several years before.
They found Jose’s street and house number then parked in front of the neatly kept, little house with all of its lights on and they glanced at each as other they got out of the car, to perform a familiar duty. Their car doors slammed loudly in the quiet night. A curtain moved at one of the windows as they crossed the lawn and the front door opened when they reached the steps to the porch.
A lovely woman with a baby stood in the doorway, eyes red from crying, “My Jose, do you know where my Jose is?” she asked in Spanish.
The judge answered in Spanish, “Are you Jose Juarez’s wife?” she asked.
“Yes, where is Jose?”
“I am Beth Able, Judge Able said and this is Matthew Crenshaw a retire police officer.
“I know who you are, you helped Jose when he was young and he had lunch in your office yesterday.” Mrs. Juarez said, “He showed me your picture in the paper.”
“Do you have someone who can help you with the children?” the judge asked her quietly.
“My sister, she lives a mile or two away. She was here until it got so late.”
“Let me take the baby while you call her to come back,” the judge said.
“What’s happened? Is Jose hurt? Is he in the hospital?”
“First, call your sister and then we’ll talk about Jose,” the judge said.
She took the baby and two little fists came up to try for her glasses. The judge smiled and sat down on the sofa cuddling the baby and making cooing sounds.
Matt’s eyebrows rose as he watched Beth with a baby for the first time in their long friendship. Then he spotted three little boys in the hall and he went and knelt down and showed them a coin trick and each little boy ended up with a quarter that Matt found in their pajama pockets.
He took them into the family room and put them on the couch and plunked a child’s movie into the television. He found a blanket for them and settled them in to watch the movie with their quarters and stuffed toys.
Mrs. Juarez was back on the couch with the judge when he went back into the other room.
“Mrs. Juarez this is a very sad duty for me because I have known Jose for years and he has worked for me personally on several cases. Tonight your husband was killed in the line of duty. I’m so very sorry.”
“Oh, my God,” she cried out, “my poor Jose.”
“Do you have a priest, Mrs. Juarez?” Matt asked.
“We attend St. Catherine’s parish,” she said.
“That’s my parish too,” the judge said.
The sister arrived and the judge gave her the baby and made a call on her cell phone, before she and Matt left there was a priest there consoling the young widow.
The judge left a card with her cell number and promised the widow that she would help her with all of the paper work for the insurance and any pay that Jose had coming. She made Mrs. Juarez promise to call if she was in any danger of missing a house payment.
Beth left her card and number with the priest and told him she expected to hear every few days because Jose was a close personal friend and coworker who had lost his life in the line of duty.
Exhausted they left the pretty little house and Matt drove the judge to the hotel where she was given the key to a double room on the outside with a view of her court house. Matt escorted her up in the reserved elevator and checked out the suite before joining Beth in the main room where she had poured two fingers of Jameson into hotel glasses. She was sound asleep so he tossed off one of the drinks, threw a blanket over his old partner and left her sleeping on the sofa.
(C) August 2013 Karen MacEanruig
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