The Haunted Hideout Page 2
*-- *-- *--
Other people were also thinking about where Ramon might be sleeping. As a matter of fact, Jorge Laquidera was most intent on finding Ramon.-He was standing in the large sitting room of a luxurious suite in Laredo, Texas, pointing at a map of Kentucky.-He indicated the area around Hartford and Fordsville with his pointer.
“That bastard has to be around here somewhere.-His green card says he is employed somewhere in Ohio County and I want him found.-I must have assurances that he will not inform on any of us concerning the lucrative business we have been conducting between here and Nueva Laredo in Old Mexico.-I want him found and immediately, like yesterday,” he reiterated.-He spoke in his native tongue so that he would be understood clearly by his employees most of whom were Mexican.-The ones who were not Mexican had lived near the border long enough for Spanish to be second nature to them.
One of his employees spoke up.-“He didn’t really know much about the operation, Boss.-I don’t think he would say anything that would get any of us in trouble, anyway.”-Pablo Alvarez was afraid of what might happen to Ramon if he should be found.-He knew that Ramon had gotten involved almost by accident, anyway, and mainly because of Pablo’s insistence.-Pablo had played up the easy money part of the job instead of what the job actually was.-When Ramon found out that they were smuggling drugs out of Mexico into Texas, he wanted out right away.-Jorge, though, told him that if he left the operation, he would be extremely sorry.-At first, Pablo had thought he was referring to all the easy money he would be losing out on.-Now Pablo wasn’t too sure.
“He knows too much to be allowed to have the chance to shoot his mouth off and nobody can say for sure that he wouldn’t talk.-I want to be able to convince him that it would be quite unhealthy to let his tongue get too loose.”
Pablo said nothing more but he had about decided it was time for him to get out, too, before he got in any deeper.-The money was good, but he and the other men were taking all the risks and Jorge was getting richer and richer because of their efforts.-The heroin they smuggled across the border was worth billions of dollars in United States currency and while Pablo’s take was fairly handsome in pesos, it didn’t go far on this side of the border.
Jorge was talking again.-“We’ll be on a charter jet in the morning; all ten of us.-We’ll put down in St. Louis and catch a commuter plane from there to the airport at Owensboro.-I want the nine of you to go into the area I’ve indicated here and look for work.-You’ll have better access to information if you can interact with other laborers in the area.-You can ask discreetly if there are other Mexican workers in that part of the county.-
“Gabbert, you take Matthews and Perez and see what you can find out around Dundee.- Rojas, you and Sanchez and Mendoza check around Hartford.-Garcia, you take Alvarez and Norton and check things out around Fordsville.-I’ll set up a command post at the Executive Inn Rivermont there in Owensboro and I want reports from each of the groups on a daily basis or at least every other day.-Are there any questions?”-There seemed to be none, so he dismissed them with a wave of his hand and a reminder.-“I’ll see all of you at oh-eight-hundred hours tomorrow morning.”
When Alvarez and his buddies got to Fordsville and started asking around about jobs for Mexicans in the area, Frank Tinsley happened to be in town and since he needed help in the log woods, he was glad to put all three of them to work.-Alvarez asked if there were other Mexicans working in the area and Frank said he didn’t know of any.-Frank did deliver lumber for the work on the O’Reilly house but each time anyone came around Ramon managed to be elsewhere—working hard—but elsewhere.-He didn’t seem to want to be in sight when strangers came around.-It still surprised Ed and Johnny that he never went to town.-If he needed something from there he would send by one of the other men to get it and when he needed to cash his check, he asked Johnny to do it and get the money order to send almost all of it home to his folks.-So, actually, very few people did know that Ramon was in the area.
With his dark, wavy hair, almost black, flashing eyes and smooth olive skin, he was a very attractive Latino man.-He certainly had no physical reason to stay out of sight.-Ed and Johnny had wondered if he might be hiding from someone, but as long as he did a good job for them, they definitely wouldn't pry into his personal business.-His references had indicated that he was honest and dependable and they certainly knew he was capable so they were not concerned.-If this was his hideout, that was alright with them.-Ed and Penny had proclaimed this their ghostly hideaway and he supposed it could be Ramon's haunted hideout.-Ramon seemed contented, if a little jumpy sometimes.