C.: Well, d.c called and said that he was detained at work today. He asked me to proofread a chapter from his book . “The Magruder Mysteries Murder 8; The Inert Ingredient. The title of the chapter is “Code X.” It’s a long chapter, though. It may take me two to three days to finish it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: CODE X
As Magruder and Alice were working the day before the night he told his wife his horrible truth, Linda Moore settled into her easy chair on her only day off in a series of nine days. She’d worked four straight twelve-hour shifts. It was only because she asked urgently for a day off during the two-week stretch she was working that she was given one day off before she started another series of four straight twelve-hour shifts.
Linda’s facility was working shorthanded, due to winter vacations and the like. Linda didn’t have children, so she saw an opportunity to make some extra money, as well as comp time. Working extra shifts gave her the opportunity to watch over her new best friend, Alice Jones Magruder, as well. Linda was more than a little worried that her pseudo “little sister” was involved with a man or a situation she couldn’t get away from. Alice had intimated as much on many occasions.
This was also a good time for Linda to work overtime because her husband was working on a complicated pro bono case. Jack volunteered his services as a trial lawyer to a prisoner he felt had been the victim of falsified records.
Jack did this because this prisoner’s case was reminiscent of an earlier case he’d been involved in. In that case, Jack had been employed by a young man’s family to prove his innocence. He’d successfully gotten the alleged felon out of a twenty-five-year sentence when he pointed out a technicality. The State had failed to follow proper procedures. The chain of custody of the items presented as evidence hadn’t been followed properly, resulting in the State’s case being severely compromised. The State then offered the young man a deal. If he would plead guilty to a minor offense—possession of a small amount of narcotics (and therefore be subject to life-long parole)—the State wouldn’t seek a prison sentence for the young man. The client and his family refused.
Jack had advised the young man to take the deal, because this would be his third felony offense. Because he was being tried in Texas, this could result in a twenty-five-year sentence for the client. The young man didn’t think he could live the rest of his life without making a mistake that would result in a long prison term. As he pointed out to his lawyer, he—and many others—believed that law enforcement officers often targeted parolees, hoping that s/he would make a mistake. This would allow the cop to make an arrest of an alleged “dangerous criminal,” earning the cop both respect and status with his fellow law enforcement officers.
Although the client was probably guilty of distributing narcotics, as the state of Texas charged, Jack pointed out that the evidence had been tampered with by someone. He’d taken pictures of the evidence when it was first presented. The pill count of the evidence presented in court was higher than the original picture showed, creating obvious doubt with the jury that the evidence was accurately displayed. If the State would add pills to the evidence, Jack pointed out, what would stop them from planting the pills on the defendant in the first place? The case was dismissed by the judge before the jury could render a decision. It was as good a decision as the young man and his family could ask for.
This case was similar. The difference was that this young man’s family couldn’t afford a high-priced lawyer such as Jack Moore. They were familiar with the previous case, though, and they’d asked Jack to represent them on a pro bono basis. Jack agreed to do this because he thought that the State was trying to make an example of the defendant. He had no prior offenses, but the State was asking for the maximum penalty, reasoning that trafficking narcotics was a large problem in Houston’s Third Ward. The State wanted the trafficking stopped as soon as possible. That was an admirable goal, Jack thought, but he didn’t agree with the way the State chose to do this.
Jack believed that law enforcement had been targeting certain minority groups. Although Texas’s prison population accurately reflected the overall population of Texas, those who were in prison for minor offenses were usually of minority descent. That was largely because these men and women couldn’t afford adequate representation in court. Although they were entitled to legal counsel, the public defenders assigned to them were often so overworked that they convinced their clients to settle for the first deal offered by the State. Those who could afford a good lawyer were often the ones who served little, if any, prison time. Jack Moore sought to even those odds. It was for this reason that the best lawyer in the Greater Houston, Texas area decided to return to the courtroom.
Because Jack was working at the county jail where his client was housed until his trial, he left his cell phone at home. The county jail, like every prison, required one to have special clearance to take a cell phone into the facility. It was a large headache with a lot of red tape. One could only carry the cell phone into the facility if s/he had a valid reason to do so, such as a terminally ill relative who wasn’t expected to live much longer—and even then the red tape was required to take a cell phone into a correctional facility. Jack didn’t have a good enough reason to take his cell phone into the facility.
Because county jails were usually not in the nicest areas of town, Jack didn’t want to leave his cell phone in his vehicle. It was a better than average chance that someone would break in and steal it. He would need to be careful even though this offense, in the late twentieth century, was comparable to the crime of horse thievery a century or two ago.
Jack left the cell phone on the bar in the kitchen. Beside it, he left the main number of the jail he was visiting, in case Linda needed him for any reason. He hoped she wouldn’t, but one never knew about such things. It was this number that Linda called after her husband received a disturbing text from an unfamiliar number.
Although the text bore only four words, it was very disturbing to the veteran floor nurse. Even stranger was that the area code was that of another country. Linda discovered, after researching area codes on the dial-up internet connection that Jack used for his job, that the number originated in South America, around Bogota, Colombia.
Linda could tell when one of her charges was sick enough that she needed to call his or her parents to come to visit before the child passed. Unfortunately, she had a lot of experience in this area, working on the eighth floor at M.D. Anderson Hospital. She worked exclusively with terminally ill children. It was her calm demeanor and her kind heart that led her to be picked for this difficult job. This text, though, was something she could neither ignore nor begin to imagine what it meant—or even who sent it. The text simply read: CODE X: MIKO; 911.
When someone left the numerals 911 behind a text, it usually meant that the text required immediate attention. It implied a sense of urgency. Linda was, therefore, both shocked and surprised at her husband’s reaction when she had him paged from the main number at the jail. She relayed what the phone read to her life partner.
“Okay, thank you,” was all Jack said.
Linda worried that her husband hadn’t understood her. She was tempted to call the number back after Jack hung up the phone. It would have been futile to do this. Jack had no desire to discuss the situation on any phone, and especially not this one. The State, as well as the County, recorded every conversation transmitted on its phones. What he had to say couldn’t be relayed on a phone that was sure to be bugged. Linda trusted Jack’s judgment, though. She decided to wait until he came home to ask about the message.
It was a long wait.
Linda expected Jack to rush home and discuss the situation. He didn’t. She thought about waiting to have her lunch until her husband came home but decided against it. That was a wise decision because Jack barely made it home before she decided to eat her dinner.
“Jack?” The usually unflappable Linda Moore was very concerned and her voice showed it. “What was that text about? And who was it from? It’s bad enough that I worry about one of my coworker’s problems, but you obviously have one that requires immediate attention. What does the text mean, Jack?”
As the love of his life waited for his answer, Jack Moore weighed in his mind how much he should disclose. He finally decided that the text would affect both of them equally, so he decided to tell his wife the whole truth. It would be a long story.
“Sit down, Linda. This will take a while to explain. But if Alice needs help, maybe I should ask my brother to get involved. That’s who you were referring to when you said your coworker needed help, wasn’t it?”
Linda took her seat. The one thing she knew about the man she’d married was that he was honest. However, he was obviously hiding something from her. He’d been doing this for a long time. This didn’t sit well with her.
Additionally, she thought her husband wasn’t oriented to the situation very well. He was right about her referring to Alice Jones-Magruder when she said she must keep a close eye on a coworker, but Jack seemed to have forgotten the structure of his family.
Additionally, she thought her husband wasn’t oriented to the situation very well. He was right about her referring to Alice Jones-Magruder when she said she must keep a close eye on a coworker, but Jack seemed to have forgotten the structure of his family.
C.: Even I know how many kittens are in my family. I need to get ready for work now, though, as soon as I fix my toilet. I’ll continue reading tomorrow.
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