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Sheriff Lester Finkley did not appreciate being chewed out as he had just been chewed.-But there didn’t seem to be much he could do about it.-When it had started three years earlier all they had asked of him was that he “be somewhere else” or “look the other way” while the drugs were being brought in.-It had seemed relatively harmless then.-Now, though, he realized he was in way over his head and there was no way out—not any more.-In a way, he didn’t especially want a way out.-The money was too good and he rather enjoyed his political clout and hobnobbing with his political allies.-Just last week, he had been invited to the Judge’s house for dinner and only yesterday he had met in Austin with Governor Anderson and Senator Kirkland.-They were all on a first name basis and he did like that.-He smiled to himself as he continued to follow the winding road that led to his sprawling ranch-style home some eleven miles outside of Laredo.-As he pulled the red Corvette into the three-car detached garage, he was thinking that nothing much mattered any more anyhow.-Since his wife, Midge, had died of cancer almost seven years ago, he didn’t even come here often at all.-Of course, everything would be clean and tidy.-The Mexican girl, Kelsey, came in twice a week to keep everything shipshape in case he wanted to do some entertaining and occasionally he would have meetings there with some of the men he worked for.-The place was isolated enough for them to have complete privacy.-
His phone number was unlisted and only a handful of people had the number so when the phone was ringing when he entered the house, he was pretty sure who would be on the other end.-He was still smarting from his earlier dressing down and not at all anxious to answer the phone.-He figured they would give up eventually but when it continued to ring, he reluctantly answered.-He made his voice sound breathless as though he had rushed to answer it.
“Hello………..Oh, yes, I just got here………..No, I’m still not sure who ………I know what you said……….I’m doing everything I can, sir……..Yes, sir…….I will….Yes, sir.-Goodbye."
Yes, he did wish he knew who had been the rat-fink that told the authorities when the shipment was coming in.-He’d shoot the bastard himself just for the inconvenience he had caused in his own life.-Somebody on the inside had to have been the one who gave it up to the authorities.-He had tried every way he could think of to find out.-He had buddied up to Chief Powers and broached the subject in a round about way and that hadn’t worked.-Then he had straight out asked him who his informant had been.-The Chief absolutely refused to discuss it.-The DEA people wouldn’t even talk to him—they were totally ‘unreachable’ at the moment, he was told.-Not even one little peon had time to speak to the Sheriff himself.-That was ridiculous and they knew it and so did his boss.-He had even “invited himself” to sit in on some of the questioning of the smugglers.-Didn’t he have a little over thirty years of experience in the field?-Why would they not jump at the chance of taking advantage of his expertise?-Could they be suspicious of him?-Surely not.-There had never been a breath of scandal involved with the performance of his duty as a law enforcement official.-Did they realize that he had been a little lax perhaps in that performance lately?-Couldn’t they blame it, as his boss had insisted they would, on his escalating years and declining health?
In Austin, a distinguished-looking politician sat at his desk.-Once again, he was on the telephone.-Once again, he was venting his displeasure and predicting dire consequences.-“If he can’t do the job he is paid to do, you know the next step. ………..Yes,……alright another ten days………… If you have no viable information by the end of the month, we’ll be finding another county official.-Speaking of finding replacements, have you had any luck locating the replacement we discussed for Carl Forrester?-………..No one is irreplaceable, not even you.-Remember that.”-He replaced the receiver with a bang.
Bernie Tavalerio was still racking his brain trying to figure a way to catch the Webb County sheriff in something that would lead to proving his complicity in the smuggling operation.-He had concocted several schemes and then had to discard them due to fatal flaws.-He understood what the deputy meant when he said he had no idea who he could trust.-He needed to be able to tie him to his superior and he sure wasn’t having any luck in doing that.-He was relatively sure that Carl Forrester was the “big Boss” as far as anybody local knew.-And Carl Forrester was, no doubt, high up in the organization; but he simply, in his opinion, didn't have the brains to mastermind an enterprise as complex as smuggling.-The leader would be required to synchronize the transferring of the shipments across the border, then set up a distribution system and make portions of the shipments available in the proper quantities for each of the distributors after the distributors had been screened and selected..-Then would come the system of handling of the monies collected from the buyers and then the laundering of those funds so they could be accounted for as legitimate income for dummy corporations that also had to be set up.-He just didn't think Carl Forrester had the intellect, the connections nor the leadership abilities to be the brains behind the organization.-
If he knew a judge he was sure he could trust, he could maybe get an order for a phone tap, but he didn’t know anybody local, so that was out unless Deputy Colton Keenan could come up with an idea and sufficient evidence to warrant one.-He could do the phone tap anyway but without a court order, it would be illegal and any evidence would be inadmissible at a trial.
That night, Bernie called the deputy at home and set up a meeting for the next morning at nine at a coffee house at the other end of town from where the deputy’s fellow officers hung out.-Deputy Keenan had an idea to include the Drug Enforcement Agency rep they had worked with on the drug bust in the meeting.-Maybe Charles Harrington would have some ideas on the investigation.-Bernie agreed and the next morning the three of them filled their plates from the buffet at the Ponderosa on North Cattlemen Drive.-They sat at a corner table and talked as they ate.
“You say you have an idea that you know a local official who’s on the take in regard to the local smuggling operation?”-Charles Harrington had his suspicions, too, and he was curious if they were thinking along the same lines that he was.
Bernie let Keenan take over since he was the one who had overheard the incriminating conversation.-Keenan explained what he had heard without using any names, yet.
“I truly don’t see how the end of the call I overheard could possibly have any other interpretation.-But I still hesitate to make a direct accusation without absolute proof.”
“Okay.-Let me tell you.”-Somebody had to go out on a limb first and Charles Harrington had had serious reservations about the sheriff’s honesty for quite a long time, now.-“It’s Sheriff Finkley, isn’t it?”
Keenan looked at Tavalerio and they both nodded their heads.-“Okay, now how do we go about proving it and how do we get the goods on the guy the sheriff answers to?”-
“And how do we put a stop to the heroin smuggling between here and Mexico?” Bernie added.
Harrington shook his head sadly.-“There are a little over twelve hundred fifty miles of border between Texas and Mexico alone all defined by the Rio Grande River.-In some places you can almost step across the river.-There is no way to stop the smuggling entirely.-But if we can even slow it down and catch enough of them to cut their profits, smuggling won’t be as attractive or as lucrative as it is right now.-That’s the best we can hope for and maybe we’ll save a few young people from getting hooked on it.-But to stop it?-No, I’m afraid not.-But that doesn’t keep us from trying.”
“Well, for damn sure, we don’t need local law enforcement profiting from that illegal enterprise.”-That drew an “Amen” from Harrington and Tavalerio.
“Well, as I said before, where do we start?”
Harrington had an idea.-“What if somebody has been calling the sheriff and making death threats?-And what if the sheriff isn’t taking it seriously but Keenan is really worried about it?-The sheriff wouldn’t ask for help but Keenan feels like his boss’ life is at risk.-M
ight that be enough to get the court order for a phone tap without alerting the sheriff?”
“Then if the big boss calls again and the sheriff incriminates himself again, we’ll be completely ‘shocked’ but we’ll have it on tape and can then proceed appropriately.”-Tavalerio continued.
“Hey, that just might work.-Unless, of course, we get a judge who also isn’t on the up and up.-Then he tells the sheriff we wanted a phone tap and we’re history, literally.”
“I have a judge in mind who has dealt very severely with smugglers who have been brought before him.-Judge Marshall is wholeheartedly against drugs so I don’t think he would be likely to be one of the sheriff’s allies.-What do you say, shall we try it?”
“My wife’s sister is a legal secretary and I’m sure I can get a form for a wire tap request.-I’ll have her leave out names and titles and we can put those in ourselves.-Then I can present it to Judge Marshall and we’ll take it from there.”
“It sounds like a plan.”
That night Bernie was flipping through the television channels looking for something to watch when he saw in the previews that Governor Dan Anderson would be on next with his state of the state address.-Since Deputy Keenan had indicated that two high-ranking state officials and one of the top county officials were suspects in his own mind, Bernie decided to listen to the governor’s speech and see if he saw or heard anything that might indicate to him that it could be the governor.
“My fellow citizens, friends, neighbors and esteemed colleagues, I am happy to report to you that this great state of Texas, under the strong leadership of the Republican Party, has entered a period of unprecedented prosperity, despite a major rollback in state tax rates.-The crime rate is down; teacher salaries are at an all-time high and the percentage of students enrolling in higher education has increased dramatically.-Unemployment rates have dropped drastically and the demand for Texas beef is growing rapidly all over the world.”
Political poppycock.-That was Bernie’s assessment of the opening statement.- What he probably isn’t saying is that the State had passed a bunch of their erstwhile responsibilities down to the Counties.-Then the State could lower their taxes while the Counties had to increase their tax revenue to meet their new State-mandated responsibilities.-The crime rate is down because some of the offenses that used to be reported as ‘crimes’ are now omitted because those are now listed as misdemeanors rather than crimes.-And, sure, teachers’ salaries are higher because there had been a state-mandated cut-back in teacher positions.-Therefore, far fewer teachers were receiving a little more money for doing the work two and a half teachers had been doing.-Unemployment rates were down since more and more workers were taking minimum wage work because the drawing period for unemployment had been cut and they now had no income at all.
Bernie listened to the rest of the address but found nothing to indicate the governor’s feelings concerning drugs.-In fact, drugs weren’t mentioned at all.-Bernie hated politics with a passion.-In fact, he figured politicians were much like magicians.-They get you to look at one hand while they do something sneaky with the other hand.-And not just one Party—they were all the same in his opinion.
By the end of the week, they had their court order for a phone tap for the sheriff’s office and his apartment there in Laredo.-It might take weeks to get the evidence they needed but at least they were doing something.