know that the best thing for him to do was just to come clean with everything. The easier he made it for us would mean the easier we might make it for him.
“It is true; I am from Brazil on the border. I came here seven years ago and started making money with the dogs. I did this back in Brazil. Tim Cooper let me help with the dogs and I learned how he ran the fights and how he made his money”.
“At his house he had a vinegar dog like my avo had and I knew what I could do to take his job and how I could keep the fights and keep the money. I went to his house to buy the dog and we argued. I took my knife and stabbed him. I then put him in my truck and rode right down and found the park. I carried him into the park, took his shoes, and left.
Later, I called the police for it to look like I found his body. Two days ago, I was told about the fight on the computer and knew someone had taken his place instead of me. I went to the fight to find out who it was.”
Chris asked, “What is your real name? Fernando Lugo is the president of Paraguay so we know that isn’t it”.
“My name is Fernando Laitch”.
As the officers took him away, I sent my boys a text to let them know we were done and then walked to one of the patrol cars with Chris. Much later, we were back in Richard Turnbow’s office going over the night’s events as the sun was coming up outside. The coffee was especially nice since we had been able to resolve the case, save several dogs, and prevent dog fighting for at least a little while.
Richard was tired but excited still. “Calhoun, how did you know that dog was down on Links View when this Fernando was living in Centerville?”
“Not too hard, chief. I had a few days between Sunday and tonight; all I had to do was spend an afternoon at the little league baseball games with a picture of a bush dog and ask the kids if they had ever seen one. It took me three evenings, but the kids over in Bonaire had seen one and told me where it was. We picked up the guy who lives in that house tonight with the rest of them”.
“Ok, so how did you know the man was left handed? Or that he was the one out of all those others out there tonight?”
“I know that one, Chief, “I said, ”If you take a cut coming in at an angle from the body’s right to left, that meant it must have been a left-to-right angle on the blade coming in. It could have been right-handed but that would have been very awkward. Right in front of the mashed grass where the body fell were two sets of prints facing each other so the knife came from the front of the Cooper man. Chris knew it was this Fernando in particular because he was looking at their shoes and got to a pair that matched the prints out at Rozar Park and in the back yard of Cooper’s house. And there was dried mud on them”.
“Well I don’t know very much, son, but I know we wouldn’t have gotten this thing wrapped up nearly as quickly as if you weren’t with us. I appreciate your help and you have got to show me how to see things that aren’t there like you do” Richard said, warmly shaking Chris’ hand as we were leaving. I yawned and shook Richard’s hand and Chris and I headed out to the truck and then to Waffle House.
A few minutes and another coffee later, I said, “Chris, you were four or five steps ahead of everybody and especially me. We need to sit down one day and you have to let me know how you came to see things the way you do.”
“It really isn’t that big a deal, Mark. But if you ever want me to look into things like this, I wouldn’t mind helping you out.”
“Y’all, I said. You need to start using ‘y’all’ more often,” I said with a smile, “people are going to think you aren’t from around here with all that hair. I still want to know where you learned to see things like you do.”
“Know what?” Chris responded, “What is the best way to learn something? Do you know what it is?”
“No, how?”
“You learn something best by teaching it”.
I hope you enjoyed this account of what happened to us beginning at Rozar Park. Like I said, I am not much of a writer but I hope good enough for you to enjoy reading this.
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