Chapter VIII

he owner of the Pep Boys was Ron Phelps.  He received Agent Len Mathers in his back office which was in the second floor with a window that looked out over the store.

The window was a one way glass mirror, and stretched all the way across the building at the back.  One could literally see the entire store, walking back and forth as necessary to watch someone.  More than one thief had been apprehended in that way.

Along with that, they had cameras which had a motion sensor option.  When motion was detected an alert would pop up on a screen and other cameras within close proximity but from different directions would begin recording along with the first.

Ron was proud of his store and kept it up cosmetically and stocked well.  He also kept good personnel on board.  And yes, he'd had a Danny working for him at one time but his name was Bradshire.  Ron described Danny to him and his features matched Trace and Grace Bradshire.

Danny was a good worker, worked at stocking the store and in the mechanics department changing tires.  He was always bringing someone in who needed tires and did quite an impressive business in used tires.  He'd worked out a deal with Ron for a cut on all the used tires he could sell.

But, he did run with a ragged crowd and Ron suspected drug use.  He'd been sent home twice for being high, smelling of marijuana strongly.  Just before he was killed his teeth had suddenly began to rot out of his head and Ron suspected meth.  Then, he heard the news how he'd been shot in a holdup and disappeared.

A month later one of Danny's homies came in to get a tire and in the midst of the conversation, told of Danny getting shot by a policeman, but got away.  There was a rumor going around that he was having an affair with his private doctor, and that he had died.  This was the same doctor who Danny bragged about getting prescription drugs from.

Ron responded with a "no, I don't think so" when asked if Danny had stolen from him.  In fact, Danny had helped with his security a time or two, and had complete run of the store with the exception of the office in which he sat talking to Len.  Then, Len asked a real private question.  Do you have any teenage children who might have become involved in some way with Danny.

Ron sat there a second then answered with a wistful tone to his voice, "I do have some teenagers, but I don't think they had any kind of ties with him."

Len noted the change in Ron.  Ron was suddenly short with his answers and then quite suddenly, he was "needed" at a front register, and quickly ushered Len out the door.  Len stopped suddenly in the hall, turned around and faced Ron.  "Was Danny involved in burglary forays of other businesses?"

"I don't know a thing about that.  Like I said, Danny was a good guy who made me money.  That's all I know."

Ron started to turn then stopped and turned back to face Len.  "How is it that an FBI agent is asking questions about a man who was suspected doing small burglaries?"

Len went on the defensive and said "I can't answer your question Mr. Phelps, but if we learn more, we'll be back to talk to you.  Good day."  Len knew Ron Phelps was hiding something and he was going to have to work at getting that information out of him.

It wasn't long before Len learned a little about Ron Phelps himself.  Ron had two girls and a son.  His son was in prison for running drugs.  His oldest daughter was close to Danny's age, and his youngest daughter was a runaway.  So there was no doubt as to the reason Ron went short with his answers when his children were mentioned.

But the next bit of information was quite surprising and Len wondered why it didn't come up in the conversation with Ron.  Ron owned three of the Pep Boy franchises.  That's how Danny was able to make so much money selling used tires.

"With all the cattin' around of Danny, I would be willing to bet Ron's daughter was romantically involved with Danny.  Ron had spoken highly of Danny and said 'he was a very likeable guy, had a charisma to him.' " Len was relating to the Team of his conversation with Ron.

Ron had said "all the kids flocked around him in High School, but he only went through 11th grade and quit."

"Well, it looks like I'm going to be returning to see Mr. Phelps" Len said.  He put one of his 'diggers' on Ron, and answered his phone.  "Sure, we'll be there."  A digger was an investigator that dug around in peoples lives both private and business related; learning about their connections, records, arrests, affiliations.

Lane and Victor already had a table and coffee ordered for the Team when William, Sharon, Melinda and Len joined them.  There were two more places at the table, one between Lane and Victor and one beside Victor.  The waitress came around and was getting everybody's order when Chief Banty Coker entered with his wife Ellen, another FBI agent.

They'd only been married a couple of years and she had been on assignment in Phoenix.  "It was the last of her assignments 'out' "she explained.  She was a pretty blond, a little taller than Banty.  "I've known Banion all my life" she finished.

"Ohhhh" Melinda said in response to the unwanted run down, then asked "who's Banion?"

"Why Banty of course.  When he didn't grow as tall as his cohorts in High School, they got to calling him Banty, cuz he was always ready to fight to defend his stature.  And he could whip about all the guys at school and had proved it on several occasions when one questioned his ability to defend 'his' territory, usually a girlfriend or some other devastating thing."

The way she said it was quite funny and Banty just glared at her through his thick glasses.  He was a serious sort and she was proving to be a cutup.  Sharon and Melinda were taken with her.  But she would prove she was all business when it came to handling guns and culprits.

Banty had called the informal and impromptu meeting of the minds to compare notes of the current investigation.  They had learned that the shootings targeting Policemen were a result of three of a 'clan' being killed during a rash of robberies.  Police were chosen at random as they became targets of opportunity.

Grace had written in stone that 'four policemen must die for each of the clan killed.'  That was thrown into play when the four policemen/henchmen killed Danny.  Danny was accused of abducting the Chiefs' daughter in La Dago, but the truth would come out, his daughter had decided to run away and marry him.

Being more than the Chief was willing to try to live down, he wrongly accused Danny of abduction, thereby justifying when he sent his henchmen to the location where he was staying.  They went there to 'take care of the problem.'  He was living beside a Pep Boys Auto Parts store.  Danny managed to elude the henchmen but was never heard from again.

Len told what he'd learned at the local Pep Boys store, and wondered if the La Dago store was owned by Ron Phelps.  It was.  And this store had been managed by Danny for a short period of time, his position of manager forfeited when he disappeared.

Then Lane came up with a surprising bit of information.  Alex Padian had spent most of his professional life as an ME (Medical Examiner, ie., coroner).  He was a mild mannered, laid back sort of guy.  He'd met a doctor in course of his duties while a young man and they'd married.  He was true, but Mary liked to play around and was always having visitors.

And she had a passel of kids.  A total of eight.  All were in the medical profession in some way or another.  Nearly every day when Alex came home there'd be a different vehicle in the driveway.  They lived at that time on a sprawling piece of real estate on the west end of town and his property bordered the beach.

Upon seeing a vehicle at the beach house or parked in front of the house, Alex would simply park outside the gate and wait for the vehicle to come out.  The man would wave and Alex would then drive his own car up the winding drive and park in 'his' spot.  This went on for several years, and Alex was never sure how many of the kids wearing his name were even his.

Mary also had some children she registered with a surname other than his.  One day a corpse lay on his stainless steel table with a wound that wasn't even closed.  The doctor didn't finish closing the incision when the patient died on the table.  During the course of the autopsy, Alex found some serious problems caused by the operating physician.

He made the mistake of telling Mary and she went into hyper gear, and began blackmailing the doctor.  Alex was not aware of the situation and began to look more closely at anyone who died during or close after surgery.  He informed Mary of another mal-practice incident and she again went into blackmail mode.

But Alex was getting the blame for it.  Then, having access to the corpses, she began to harvest bone for a chain of low-cost dentist offices to be used in strengthening jaw bones for the placement of implants.  Plus, they began to 'harvest' the titanium implant shafts for the teeth to anchor the implants.

They were getting five hundred dollars per screw.  The crooked dentists involved would sell them for one thousand a piece to the new patients.  But it was a nasty business.  They would literally break out the upper studs, just take the jawbone of the person replacing it with a piece cut out of a pvc pipe.

There were connections with the mortuary who would pad the face with cotton and hide the mal-practice.  Then, Mary had the chance to sell a live organ.  With the low-life rif-raf of some of her kids friends, when they came into her private clinic shot up, whether they lived or not depended on the donor call list.

Mary would 'pay' the bill for her services by telling the friends and relatives that if they would allow her to harvest an organ for some poor soul who needs a transplant, then she wouldn't charge them for her services.  More than once a healthy person gave up organs for the black market.  And, more than one person died when they received an organ from someone with a disease.

Mary was getting worse and worse, and one day Alex sat out at the end of the drive waiting for the 'patient' to leave when he noticed who it was.  It was the straw that broke the camels back.  The guy was found dead a couple of days later from a knife through the heart, still strapped into his vehicle.

It was less than a week later that another one of her 'patients' was found dead.  Alex had bad relations with two of the men whose names were on the birth certificates of kids he was raising.  He'd warned them to leave and don't come back.  What he didn't take into consideration was that it takes 'two' to tango.  He had targeted only one half of the ordeal, and, the wrong person.

Then, a private investigator of one of the deceased began to nose around and approached Alex, insinuating he knew of the goings on.  Alex responded with brutal force which only brought the cops down on him.  An investigation aimed at him because of the personal attack he'd made on the investigator, named him as the one selling the organs and harvesting bone and titanium studs as well as other implants.

He was promptly fired and sued, and lost his large property holdings he'd worked for all his life, and was then charged with murder of the two 'patients' by the names of Slayter Bradshire and Skeeter Blanton, both lovers of his wife.  He was thrown into prison on death row, and his family went to the dogs living in a dump in the worst section of town imaginable.

Mary was now having to pay her own way.  But she was doing quite well with her private practice which was enjoyed by very few.  Mostly those who were on the bad side of the law and had been shot.  But more than one died in her 'clinic.'

When Danny came in with two gunshot wounds, he would have lived with a minimum of patching up.  But he died.  For some reason a kidney came up missing as well as his heart and both eyes.  His body would be found later dumped in an old abandoned gold mine.

Alex died at the end of a rope per his choice.  No one would believe his lack of involvement in the other scandals, and he took the rap.  But he would never name Mary as the culprit.  He was on death row anyway.

A couple of months before Danny was shot, there had been a string of burglaries in the 'nice' section of town.  Then, as a challenge, he was put onto the notion of lifting some discs and a case of weapons from the Police department at La Dago.  A special detail had brought the shipment in from the Stillwell Creek Police department.

A special envoy from the government was in cahoots with Police Chief Viceroy Clemens.  Together they coerced Chief Amanda Williams to release the disks and the case with a fake CIA document.  The night they arrived in La Dago, the inside informant who'd challenged Danny to take the stuff 'accidently' left the safe open.  By midnight the stuff was gone.

Danny had become a wanted man, only this time, he would not survive.  There was a long list offences piling up against him.  The one he claimed as his mother would render her own type of justice.

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